The present invention relates to a system and method for generating an output signal indicating a specific area on an optical disc, and more particularly, to a system and method for generating an output signal indicating a specific area on an optical disc utilizing a protection means.
An optical disc with pre-recorded address information (ex. DVD-RAM disc) always includes different kinds of areas, as shown in FIG. 1, and which area is to be processed should be determined accurately while reading data from the target area or recording data onto the target area. Since the data field configuration is clearly defined in the DVD-RAM specification, further description is omitted here for brevity. As known to those skilled in this art, many operations should be performed before processing the target area, such as slicer reset, PLL adjusting, etc. If the target area to be processed can be determined as early as possible, the aforementioned operations can be performed accurately, thereby increasing the accuracy of data reading or data recording.
Traditionally, two steps are necessary for generating desired output signals indicating specific areas of an optical disc with pre-recorded address information, which includes: utilizing a header signal generated from optical pick-up head signals and utilizing pre-recorded address information, which is called Physic identification (PID) for a DVD-RAM disc. As the pre-recorded address information cannot be obtained initially, the header signal is first utilized to generate output signals indicating specific areas of an optical disc, and then pre-recorded address information is utilized.
Optical pick-up head signals are usually unstable, however, and the associated header signals may include errors. This means the generation of pre-recorded address information may be affected due to the errors, and the output signals indicating specific areas of the optical disc according to the header signals and pre-recorded address information become unreliable.
Accordingly, many related art methods or systems are disclosed to solve the above-mentioned problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,667 discloses an optical disc recording and reproducing method for recording and reproducing data in and from an optical disc by the use of the optical disc as a recording medium. The related art method disclosed in this patent includes: analog processing and binarizing a first signal read from an optical disc; and controlling, recording and reproducing a second signal in and from the optical disc in analog processing; and switching between at least two modes for generating a gate signal. The generated gate signal is for instructing the analog processing step to perform switching of the gain to be used therein, where the switching depends upon the first signal read from the optical disc.